


obligatory anthrax episode fluff

by jude__the__dude



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hospitals, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26391667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jude__the__dude/pseuds/jude__the__dude
Summary: the anthrax episode except you're in it. and you may or may not be secretly dating spencer.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader, Spencer Reid/You, The BAU Team/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 147





	obligatory anthrax episode fluff

The car pulled up to the suspected Unsub’s house and you let out a sigh. You didn’t know what to expect at the scene, but you hoped that Prentiss and Rossi found something at the lab.  
You followed Derek and Spencer out of the car and onto the front lawn of the house. Derek’s phone ringing grabbed your attention.

“Yeah Prentiss, what’s up?” Derek spoke, looking away from you and Spencer. Your eyes stayed on him to see if the phone call had any news. Big mistake. “We’re here now.”

The sprinklers started on the other side of the lawn, causing you to jump closer to Derek and him to place a reassuring hand on your shoulder. “Sorry what? The lab is clean? You’re sure? Alright.”

He turned to you with furrowed eyebrows. “They’ve got nothing- Reid?” You turned behind you only to notice that Spencer wasn’t there.

“Reid!” You called out. “He was here a second ago.” 

Morgan spotted an open side door to the house and jogged over. “Reid. Reid!” 

“Morgan, get back.” Spencer said suddenly, appearing out of nowhere and sliding the glass door shut. “Get back, get out of here.”

“What are you doing? What’s wrong?” Derek asked, with anger and concern in his voice.

You heard the commotion and ran over to them, not sure what was going on. As soon as you saw Spencer’s face, you knew it couldn’t be good. “Spencer, what’s going on?”

“Please get back.” Spencer pleaded. 

“What’s wrong?” Derek repeated. “Reid, open the door.”

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, eyes looking anywhere but into yours.

You felt the tip of your nose tingle as your eyes started to prick with tears. “This can’t be happening.” Derek quickly walked away to call Hotch you assumed, but you really didn’t care. “Spencer-”

“Hey no, don’t say anything.” Spencer cuts you off. “If I was creating a strain of anthrax by myself, what would I do?”

You furrowed your eyebrows as you forced your brain back into professional profiler mode and not concerned significant other mode. “I would make an antidote in case I get infected.”

“Exactly.” Spencer smiled at you. “And Nichols was a military doctor.”

“So he would be incredibly secretive and protective.” You said, bouncing off of each other. 

“Which means the antidote is hidden somewhere-”

“Here.” You looked up and made eye contact with him.

“Yeah, right here. This is the best place for me to be infected.” Spencer held eye contact with you as he said that to make sure you were listening to him. He placed his hand on the glass and looked down at it. You immediately put your hand against his on the other side.

“You better find that antidote quick, my boyfriend’s in there.” You told him.

He chuckled and nodded his head. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to him.”

“You better.”

Derek came over a moment later with his phone in hand. “Just talked to Hotch. Dr. Kimura and her team are on their way. Hotch says to get as much information as you can about Nichols from his lab.”

“On it.” Spencer nods and heads off to look through the lab.

“I’m staying here.” You blurt out to Derek. “I- We can’t leave him here, Derek.”

“We aren’t going to.” He nods at you. “You and I can stay here. They don’t need us anywhere else. I’m not leaving Reid until he’s at a hospital and he’s stable.” You hummed, agreeing with him. If only he knew your intentions weren’t the same as his. 

He was staying to see his partner and best friend off to the hospital. You were staying to make sure these weren’t the last moments you would ever get to spend with the love of your life.

The relationship you and Spencer had wasn’t complicated when it came to you and him, but it was incredibly complicated when it came to your coworkers. Everyone knew you were close and that you considered each other best friends. However, no one knew that it had evolved. You and Spencer had officially begun dating six months ago, but the only difference between now and six months ago was that you were more physically affectionate. 

No one questioned it if you arrived to work together as it was happening for months beforehand. Except now you weren’t staying over just to watch Doctor Who and play chess. And Spencer’s bed was definitely more comfortable than his couch. Funny how as soon as Derek stopped teasing you about sleeping with Spencer, you started sleeping with Spencer. 

You and Spencer requested a serious sit down meeting with Hotch the day after you realized you both felt the same way. Hotch grilled you both to make sure you would stay professional whether it worked out or not, but he admitted that he only did it because he had to. 

He knew you and Spence were professionals who loved their jobs and nothing, not even love, could get in the way. He respected your wishes to keep it private. But you didn’t miss the way he would team you guys up when he knew a case would be hard on either one of you.

While you beat yourself up over it being Reid and not you in there, Spencer was doing something else. He called Hotch and told him about everything he could find in the lab that was of use, now all he could do was wait for Dr. Kimura and her team. But he knew that there was a possibility that things wouldn’t turn out how he’d like them to. So he made a phone call. 

“Hey Reid.” Penelope greeted once she accepted the phone call. 

“Reid. Wow, no uh- no witty Garcia greeting for me?” Spencer asked, voice already weaker than before. 

“I can’t be my sparkly self when you are where you are.” Garcia smiled sadly to herself. 

Reid sighed. “Garcia, do you think you can do something for me?”

“Anything.” She answered.

“I uh- I know I can’t call my mom without-” He coughed, but quickly spoke over it. “Without alerting everyone at her hospital.”

Garcia nodded in understanding before she spoke. “What do you need?”

“I need you to record a message for her. In case anything happens to me.”

“Oh nothing’s gonna happen to you. You’re gonna brilliantly find out who did this and we’re gonna treat this strain.” Penelope spoke with authority, not willing to even think of any other outcome.

“I hope you’re right,” Spencer chuckled, “but if you’re not I just really wanna make sure that she hears my voice.” 

“Okay,” Garcia sighed, “just gimme a sec.”

“You ready?” Spencer asked. Penelope watched his voice creating sound waves on her screen and nodded.

“Ready.”

“Hi mom.” Spencer’s voice wavered, causing the tech analyst to tear up. “This is Spencer. I just um- I just really want you to know that I love you. And I need you to know that I spend every day of my life proud to be your son.”

Garcia sniffled as she heard Spencer cough on the other line. She waited for him to continue, but he stayed quiet. “Reid, is that all?”

“Um no, not exactly. Can you start another recording?” He asked.

“Sure, who is this one for?” She asked, typing and clicking away on her computer.

“y/n.” 

“But isn’t y/n there with you? You don’t need to worry about breaking any rules with the people on the case, Reid.”

“Yeah I know, but I know I’ll get yelled at for trying to say goodbye.” Reid chuckled dryly, he knew the situation wasn’t funny but he wasn’t going to let himself wallow in self pity.

“Yeah okay, you can go ahead.”

Spencer cleared his throat once more and sighed. “Hey love, I hope you never have to hear this.” If Garcia wasn’t crying before, she definitely was now. “If I… If something happens to me, I want you to know that I’m glad I found the anthrax and locked the door before you could. I love you, y/n. I swear to god, as soon as I’m out of here I’m gonna ask you.”

Garcia was hoping that he would elaborate on that last part, but Reid heard a few cars parking in front of the house and knew that it was Dr. Kimura. He cleared his throat and wiped away the tears from his eyes. “I gotta go.” He spoke quickly into the phone and ended the call before Garcia could say anything.

Penelope sat there in her chair, not knowing what to do. She had her suspicions about you and Reid, but she didn’t think you were that serious. If the situation wasn’t as bad as it was, she would be teasing you to no end. But right now, she hoped you would never have to hear this recording and that Reid could ask you whatever it was he needed to ask you soon.

When Dr. Kimura and her team arrived at the scene, her main priority was the resident genius. She didn’t doubt his profiling skills, but she hoped he was right about the antidote because his hours were numbered without it.

By the time the antidote was found and the Unsub was identified, you were a shaking mess. You had seen glances of Spencer through the windows and the glass door a few times and he had seen better days.

“They’re hosing him down.” Derek spoke suddenly. Neither of you were talking unless it was important. For the past half hour nothing important came up, so nothing was said.

“What?” You asked. 

“Look,” He pointed towards one of the clear plastic tents connected to the house, “they’re hosing him down. I think that means he’s going to the hospital.” 

“Oh thank god.” You sighed and jogged over with Derek to see Spencer. Derek speed dialed Hotch as you approached the plastic tent.

Hearing Hotch’s muffled voice through the phone pressed to Derek’s ear, you knew he had managed to guess what the situation was immediately. “Yeah, they’re hosing him down now.” Derek spoke as he looked at his soaking wet best friend behind the plastic sheet. “Alright,” he hung up and turned to speak to Spencer. “They’re checking out Brown’s house.”

“Go help Hotch.” Spencer croaked as he closed his eyes at the cold water.

“Hotch has plenty of people helping him.” Derek responded.

“He needs you more than I do.” Spencer retaliated like you knew he would.

“Reid, we’re gonna see you off to the hospital.” Derek spoke with authority, tucking his thumbs into his belt.

“I’m about to get naked so they can scrub me down. Is that something you really wanna see?” 

If the situation wasn’t as sensitive as it was, you would have definitely made a joke about how it was nothing you haven’t seen before. The thought still counts though, right?

“I’ll check on you later.” Derek’s eyebrows shot up and he leaned away from the plastic. “Take good care of him, please.” He said in passing to Dr. Kimura as he walked away. Either he didn’t notice you staying behind or he didn't want to mention it, because you didn’t move an inch.

“I’m not leaving, Spencer.” You raised an eyebrow at him challengingly, almost daring him to tell you to leave.

“I know, love.” He sighed as he shuffled out of his shoes. “I know.”

“Get this to the lab.” Dr. Kimura handed the inhaler containing the antidote to one of her team members and turned to your boyfriend. “I hope you’re right about this.”

“So do I.” Reid sighed, undoing the tie around his neck. 

Your eyes caught sight of his hand and you gasped, “Spence, did you cut yourself?” You cursed at yourself in your head because you already knew the answer. He had accidentally walked too close to a bush full of thorns on his way into the house. You had told him you’d give him a bandaid when you went back to the car. If only it were that simple now.

What happened after that was a blur to both you and Spencer. He was quickly scrubbed down and given a gray set of scrubs as they rushed him onto the awaiting ambulance. You were prepared to fight your way into the back with him, but Dr. Kimura sat you down next to her as soon as Spencer was stabilized on the stretcher. 

“How are you doing Dr. Reid?” She asked him, placing the chest piece of her stethoscope on him. He coughed violently before he opened his mouth to speak. He told her that his throat was feeling a little dry, but then everything else he said didn’t make any sense. You teared up as you recalled the girl at the hospital, Abby, who started speaking gibberish during her interview and what Dr. Kimura said that meant.

“It’s okay, Spence, it’s okay.” You grabbed his hand as you quieted him down. You heard the doctor yell something to the driver, but you weren’t paying much attention to her. Spencer’s wide eyes were looking into yours with such visceral fear that you couldn’t tear yourself away from them. “You’re gonna be fine.”

Seeing Spencer in the hospital bed after everything almost broke you. All you could do now was wait, but the doctors assured you that he was absolutely fine. You didn’t doubt them, of course. But the dust of the horrible day that was today was finally settling and your emotions were in overdrive. You could have lost the love of your life.

It wasn’t like he didn’t know that you loved him or that there were things between you that weren’t said. He knew. He knew everything. The both of you have spoken about everything under the sun together. You had discussed what kind of house you’d like to share down the line. You had discussed co-writing a book with him about all the horrors you’d faced together if you ever retired. You discussed how the book was definitely going to happen but laughed at the big if that was retiring. You had discussed marriage and how stupid it was and how the whole thing was a big social construct created to further the capitalist society you live in and how you definitely wanted to marry him. For the tax benefits of course.

Yet, with all these things discussed and him being alive and healthy in front of you, your tears continued to spill.

You were stacking the six cups of red jello you had managed to find into a triangle when you heard someone approaching. “Oh, honey bun.” Garcia cooed when she walked into the hospital room with Derek. You looked up and smiled tearfully at the both of them.

“Hey guys.” You sniffled as Garcia scooped you up into a bear hug. You brushed away your tears when you pulled away and cleared your throat. “The doctors said that he’s gonna be just fine.”

“I told him.” Penelope told you as she cupped your face in her palms, stroking your cheeks with her thumbs. “I told him that he would brilliantly figure everything out. And I’m always right.”

“That you are, baby girl.” Derek said, sitting in your seat and looking at the sleeping genius you were all gathered there for. He leaned forward to grab the highest jello off your jello pyramid but you slapped his hand away.

“Hey! No touching!” You snapped. “Do you know how hard it was to find this many jellos?”

“Baby cakes, there’s a cart full of jello at the end of the hall. I saw it myself.” Derek said, pointing out the door and down the long hallway across from Spencer’s room. There, at the end of the hallway, was a cart full of green and orange jello. 

“But he likes the red ones and these were the only ones left.” You explained. Derek chuckled and shook his head as he put the cup of jello back, but you took a mental note to keep an eye out for him.

Through the open door, you could see Hotch step off the elevator and look around for any familiar faces. He visibly relaxed once his eyes met yours, but that wasn’t saying much as Hotch pretty much always looked like the stereotypical tense and uptight FBI agent.

You stepped out of the small hospital room to see Hotch in the hallway. “Hotch.” He pulled you into a hug before you could say anything else. If anyone had to guess who your father figure on the team was, they wouldn’t have to be Spencer level genius to know that it was Hotch.

“How is he?”

“Dr. Kimura said he’s going to be fine, he was right about the antidote.” You explained even though he probably knew that.

“How’re you holding up?” He asked as he pulled away, placing both hands on your shoulders and inspecting you.

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. “I’m not the one who survived an anthrax attack.” Hotch raised an eyebrow at you like he would at Jack if he was caught in a lie. “I’m fine Hotch, really. I just want him to wake up already.”

You turned to check on Spencer through the open door only to see Derek looking back at you with wide eyes and a spoonful of red jello in his mouth. You furrowed your brows at Garcia who was whispering something apparently incredibly shocking into Derek’s ear. Before you could voice your curiosity at the pair, you saw some light movement in the corner of your eye. Right where Spencer was.

“Are you eating jello?” His croaky voice made everyone turn to face him. 

Derek hummed in amusement and swallowed the jello in his mouth. “Hey, kid.” He turned to you and Hotch in the doorway. “Hey guys, sleeping beauty finally woke up.”

“Is there anymore jello?” Spencer asked drowsily and sat up as you slowly walked back into the room. He looked over at you and Hotch and squinted at the harsh lighting. “What happened?”

“You’re gonna be alright, kid.” Derek stood up to let you take back your seat. “And we got Brown. It’s over.”

“How’s Abby?” Spencer asked, not surprising anyone.

“She’s better. So are the three others. You were right about where to look for his cure. Just like I told you.” Garcia winked at him causing his neck to heat up. As they spoke, you walked back over to the seat next to Spencer and took his hand in yours.

“Yeah yeah, you told me so.” He chuckled. He looked over at you beside him and sighed, like he could finally breathe. “Hey love.”

‘Love?’ Derek mouthed at Garcia, who smirked and nodded. Hotch rolled his eyes and quietly escorted the gossiping duo out of the hospital room and into the hallway where the rest of the team were approaching.

The pet name made you tear up once more. “Hey.”

“Hey no, don’t cry.” Spencer leaned forward and brushed away the tears on your cheek with his thumb.

“I can’t stop even though I know you’re fine. What does that mean, Spence?”

“Uncontrollable crying can be a symptom of a condition called pseudobulbar affect, or PBA. PBA is an involuntary neurological state related to an injury or disturbance in parts of your brain that control your emotions.” He spouted out the fact like a living textbook like he knew you wanted. “But you’re just crying because-”

“The love of my life almost died?” 

“Yeah.” Spencer sighed. “I’m sorry, y/n”

“Don’t be, you saved a lot of lives today. I’m so proud of you. But please never ever do that again.” You pleaded and stuck out your pinky.

Spencer smiled and hooked his pinky with yours. “Never ever.”

You took in a deep breath and looked Spencer in the eye. “Spencer, let’s do it tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” He asked, confused as to what ‘it’ was and why it had to happen so quickly.

“Or whenever you leave the hospital. When you feel better. Next week. Whenever, I don’t care.”

“Love, we can do it tomorrow.” He said, taking both your hands in his. “But what are we doing?” 

“Let’s get married. A courthouse wedding, like we talked about. I’ll wear that outfit I wore when we went to the park, I know you really liked it. And you can wear that suit I like. You know the one, don’t you?”

“I know the one.” Spencer nodded with a lovestruck smile. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. I could’ve lost you today and nobody even knows that we’re together. I don’t know what I-”

“Stop that, you don’t need to think about that anymore.” Spencer’s serious tone quieted you down and you nodded. “We’re getting married tomorrow, you can’t be sad.”

“Oh wait, don’t you have to make an appointment or some-” Spencer cut you off with a passionate kiss, your favorite kind. He held your face in both hands as he pulled you as close to him as he could.

“I love you.” You said softly against his lips.

“I love you.” He replied. You had always told him how you never liked the phrase ‘I love you, too.’ You told him how it felt less genuine, so he made sure to never say it. “You know I was going to ask you the same thing?” He laughed softly as he pulled away.

“You were?” You asked.

“Yeah, I called Garcia and told her to record a message for my mom and one for you in case anything happens.” Spencer explained. “At the end I said that I was gonna ask you if I got out of there. I guess great minds really do think alike.”

“My mind is nowhere near as great as yours, Spence.” You scoffed.

“Yeah definitely, yours is way greater.” He grinned at you, proud of himself for that one. Spencer looked over at your team by the door, no doubt causing a traffic jam out in the hallway. They all looked away quickly, pretending like they weren’t watching the entire private interaction. “You wanna tell them or should I?”

“You do it.” You told him, a newfound nervousness filling your chest. You knew some of the people on the team had their doubts about you and Spencer, but you hadn’t told them anything. Now you weren’t revealing to them that you were dating but that you planned on getting married soon.

“Guys, you can- you can come in now.” Spencer called out to them.They all piled into the room quickly, you smiled and waved at JJ, Emily, and Rossi who had arrived during your conversation with Spencer. “We have something we would like to share with you.”

“I would hope so.” JJ laughed.

“Yeah, how long has this been going on and when were you gonna tell us?” Emily smiled, clearly happy for you but she couldn’t help but tease.

“It’s been about six months, but I’m sure Spencer can tell you the specifics.” You say, feeling Spencer squeeze your hand to calm you down a bit.

“Six months, thirteen days, and seventeen hours.” Spencer said. “But that’s not what we wanted to tell you.”

Everyone went silent for a second.

“Well go on kid, no one’s stopping you.” Derek urged him, eliciting a few giggles here and there.

“We’re uh- we’re planning on getting married. Would you guys like to come?”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! this is re-uploaded from my deleted tumblr blog. tbh i havent written on ao3 since i was 14 and even then im pretty sure i was doing it wrong. sorry if i did something wrong but ill hopefully learn along the way.


End file.
